'' Wy-^ 7^ 




5^^ 



EVOLUTION OF THE UNIVERSITY 



First Annual Address before the Axumni Association op the 
University of Nebraska, June 11, 1889 



By GEORGE E. HOWARD 

Professor of History in the University of Nebraska 



LINCOLN 

Published by the Association 

1890 



EVOLUTIOiN OF THE UNIVERSITY 



First Annual Address before the Alumni Association of the 
University of Nebraska, June 11, 1889 






By GEOKGE E. HOWAKD 

Professor of History in the University of Nebraska 



LINCOLN 

Published by the Association 

1890 






JOHN MURPHY & CO., PRINTERS. 
BALTIMORE. 



EVOLUTION OF THE UNIVERSITY. 



Institutional history is of peculiar value because within its 
sphere — by no means a narrow one — it constitutes an unus- 
ually trustworthy and unbroken record of social and intellec- 
tual progress. An institution is as truly a living organism 
as is a plant or an animal. It germinates, flourishes, or decays 
as do the ideas, sentiments, and desires of which it is the 
outward expression. Its phases of growth conform to natural 
and ascertainable laws ; and the teacher of history does well 
when he constructs the major part of his curriculum on the 
solid basis of political organizations. Here, at any rate, his 
method may be rigidly scientific. What he loses in breadth, 
if indeed he lose anything, is more than counterbalanced by 
depth and ])recision. Social embryology and animal embry- 
ology present similar phenomena to the observer. And, while 
the naturalist necessarily treats his subject from the historical 
point of view, the student of comparative institutions is more 
and more inclined to ascribe to his branch the character of a 
biological science. 

But while political institutions are beginning very properly 
to occupy a large space_ in the university life, there are organ- 
isms of a different nature whose history is scarcely less inter- 
esting or instructive. Among these not the least noteworthy 
is the university itself: a noble product of social advancement, 
designed at once for the cultivation of the intellect and for the 
expansion of the boundaries of knowledge. Indeed the import- 
ance of three or four of the early centers of learning in determin- 

3 



■qijee*' 



■&^^ 



■^3»' 



4 Evolution of the University. 

ing the character of mediaeval and modern society is incalculable. 
Thus the University of Paris — to take the most remarkable 
example — exerted during eight centuries a vast influence on 
European history ; and the standard of culture in our own 
country is indirectly affected by the survival of that influence 
even at the present time. It may not therefore be entirely 
inappropriate to spend the hour set apart for the first anniver- 
sary address before this Association in tracing the genesis and 
evolution of the ideas and constitutional mechanism which 
enter into the general conception of that institution of which 
the American state university is the most recent type. The 
following topics will be briefly considered : 

1. The Studium Generale; or the origin and character of 
the mediaeval university. 2. The triumph of the college over 
the university, notably at Oxford and Cambridge, and the 
influence of the English university on American schools. 
3. The Renaissance of learning, particularly in the United 
States. 4. The relation of the state university and its alumni 
to the social organism. 

I. — The Studium Generale. 

Previous to the beginning of the twelfth century the only 
institutions of learning which existed in Europe were the 
cathedral and monastic schools. Here were acquired such 
scanty elements of knowledge as enabled the stolid monk or 
the ignorant and superstitious priest to administer the dull 
routine of his office. Through the long period of national 
gestation, commonly described as the " dark ages," but a 
feeble ray of classic learning was able to penetrate, notwith- 
standing the temporary revival under Charles the Great.^ 



^ A slight tradition of ancient learning was preserved throughout the 
middle ages; but, as Mr. MuUinger has shown, it was "the highest excel- 
lence of the scholar to render all profane literature subservient to the illus- 
tration of the scriptures." The principal text books of the period were the 



Evolution of the University. 5 

But at length the new nations were born, and mediaeval man 
demanded a wider opportunity for the exercise of his physical 
and intellectual powers. This was first sought in the Cru- 
sades. But the most remarkable effect even of the First Cru- 
sade was the expansion of the mental horizon. Curiosity was 
excited and a thirst for knowledge aroused. With this gen- 
eral cause a second, narrower though scarcely less potent, 
cooperated to produce a demand for new and more efficient 
means of instruction : the practical need of systematic training 
in the learned professions. 

Accordingly, in the early years of the twelfth century, asso- 
ciations were formed almost simultaneously at Bologna and 
Paris, for the purpose of securing certain kinds of instruction 



Historiarum adversus Paganos Libri VII, of Orosius ; the De Kuptiis Philolo- 
giae et Mercurii et de Septem Ariihus Liberalibus Libri Novem, of Martianus 
Capella ; the De Consolatione Philosophiae, together with the translations 
and commentaries, of Boethius ; the De Artibus ac DiscipUnis Liberalium 
Literarum, of Cassiodorus ; and the Origines, of Isidore. By Boethius and 
Cassiodorus some knowledge of Porphyry's Isagoge and of the logic of Aris- 
totle were preserved ; by Orosius, a follower of Augustine, the mediseval 
theory of history was formulated : divina providentia agitur mundus et homo ; 
by Isidore was effected the " incorporation of the remains of pagan learning 
with the new theology;" while through the allegory of Martianus "was 
transmitted to the universities of Europe the ancient division of the trivium 
and quadiHmum." The first of these courses comprised grammar, logic, and 
rhetoric ; the second, arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy. But 
the literature and culture of the period preceding the rise of universities 
were meagre in the extreme, and " almost exclusively possessed by the 
clergy." For the foregoing statement and a learned discussion of the his- 
tory of education between the fourth and twelfth centuries, see MuUinger, 
The University of Cambndge, I, 1-64. The best monograph on the revival 
of learning under Charlemagne is The Schools of Charles the Great (London, 
1877), by the same writer, containing also a sketch of the imperial, cathe- 
dral, and monastic schools preceding the reign of that monarch. Short 
accounts of the Palace School may be found in Guizot's History of Civiliza- 
tion in jP?-ance, 111,30-54; Mombert's History of Charlesthe Great, 241 ff.; and 
Newman's Rise and Progress of Universities : abridged in Barnard's America7i 
Journal of Education, vol. 24 (1873), pp. xliv-viii. Cf. Prantl, Geschichte der 
Logik, I, 626 ff., 672 ff.; Hallam, Literature of Europe, I, 1-15. 



6 Evolution of the University. 

which could not be afforded by the ecclesiastical schools.^ These 
associations were simply scholastic gilds or spontaneous com- 
binations of students and teachers for mutual aid and protec- 
tion ; and they were evidently formed on the analogy of the 
contemporary craft gilds, more particularly the gilds of aliens 
in foreign cities/ which had made their appearance in western 
Europe probably at an earlier day.^ 

The earliest scholastic bodies of this character were com- 



^ The most important monograph on the genesis and early history of 
European universities is Father H. Denifle's Die Universitdten des Mittelalters 
bis 1400, not yet completed. The first volume, 815 pages, entitled Die 
Entstehung der Universitdten des Mittelalters, appeared in Berlin, 1885. Vol. 
I of Kaufmann's Geschichte der deutschen Universitdten is also devoted to the 
Vorgeschichte. An older standard treatise is Meiners' Geschichte der Entste- 
hung und Entwickelung der hohen Schiden unseres Erdtheils, 4 vols., Gottingen, 
1802-5. I am especially indebted to Savigny, The Universities of the 
Middle Ages, in Barnard's Am. Journal of Ed., vol. 22, pp. 273-330, trans- 
lated from his Geschichte des romischen Rechts im Mittelalter, vol. Ill ; Mul- 
linger. Universities, in Encyclopaedia Britannica, XXIII, a most excellent 
general sketch ; his University of Cambridge, vol. I, 65-131, where the uni- 
versities of Bologna and Paris are compared ; DoUinger, Universities, Past 
and Present, in Barnard's Journal, vol. 20, pp. 737-765 ; The University of 
Paris, in Barnard's Journal, vol. 24, pp. 745-776 : from Drane's Christian 
Schools and Scholars, a second edition of which has since appeared (London, 
1881) ; an article entitled Universities, in the North American Review, vol. 27 
(1828), pp. 67-89; and a most interesting account of Italian Univei-sity Idfe 
in the Middle Ages, in the British Quarterly Review, July, 1884, pp. 28-46. 
On the University of Paris, see further Thurot, De V Organization de I'Enseig- 
nement dans f Uiivei-site de Paris (Paris, 1850) ; Budingsley, Die Universitdt 
und die Fremden an derselben im Mittelalter (Berlin, 1876) ; and Dubarle, 
Histoire de I' Universite de Paris (Paris, 1844), I have been greatly assisted 
in the search for material by Dr. G. S. Hall's admirable Bibliography of 
Education (Boston, 1886), comprehending in sixty major classes the more 
important publications in the whole field of pedagogical literature. 

^Mullinger, Universities, Ency. Brit, XXIII, 831, 833; University of 
Cambridge, I, 72, 77. Cf. Savigny, Universities of the Middle Ages : Barnard's 
Am. Journal of Ed., vol. 22, pp. 276-280. 

^ Such combinations of s'trangers for mutual assistance may have been the 
gegildan of Ine, 16, 21; JElfred, 27, 28; .Ethelstan, VI, 8, § 6: Schmid, 
Geseize, pp. 28, 86, 166. Cf. Konrad Maurer, Kritische Ueberschau, I, 91 ff'.; 
Schmid, Glossar, 588-9. 



Evolution of the University. 7 

posed entirely of foreigners uniting to resist the rapacity and 
violence of the citizens of towns where they gathered to hear 
some celebrated teacher. Thus the first of the many such 
associations gradually formed at Bologna was probably the 
so-called German Nation, while the Tuscan Nation, or that of 
the native students, was the last. 

So it appears that the scholastic gild — a voluntary private 
association originally unprotected or unsupported by any civil 
or ecclesiastical authority — is the embryo from which were 
ultimately evolved those two mighty organizations, the uni- 
versities of Bologna and Paris, each the fruitful mother of 
a numerous group of celebrated schools. They were the 
veritable matres universitattim: Bologna, the parent of univer- 
sities of the democratic type — namely those of Italy, Spain, 
and southern France ; Paris, the parent of universities of the 
centralized type, — those of northern France, England, and 
Germany. A brief comparison of the principal features of 
these two institutions, so far as they enable us to understand 
the genesis of existing elements of the university life and 
constitution will now be presented. 

In the first place, it is important to observe that the 
mediaeval word univeisitas was originally employed, like the 
word societas, "to denote any community or corporation 
regarded under its collective aspect." ^ It thus required a 
modifying phrase to give it significance. In this way it was 
employed as the name of the scholastic gild itself. The 



^ " In the language of the civil law all corporations were called universi- 
iates, as forming one whole out of many individuals. In the German juris- 
consults universitas is the word for a corporate town. In Italy it was applied 
to the incorporated trades in the cities. In ecclesiastical language the term 
was sometimes applied to a number of churches united under the superin- 
tendence of one archdeacon. In a papal rescript of the year 688, it is used 
of the body of the canons of the church of Pisa : " Maiden, Origin of the 
Universities, 13: cited by Mullinger, University of Cambridge, I, 71. Cf. his 
article in Ency. Brit., XXIII, 831 ; Savigny, Universities of the Middle Ages, 
in Barnard's Journal, vol. 22, p. 325 ; and Barnard's Jowma/, vol. 9, pp. 49—55. 



8 Evolution of the University. 

latter as a group of fellow-countrymen was styled a natio or 
nation ; as an organization and later as a legal corporation, it 
became either a universitas discipulorwn or a universitas magis- 
trorum — a university of students or masters.^ Not until about 
the end of the fourteenth century — that is to say, until three 
hundred years from the origin of the schools of Paris and 
Bologna — was the term universiias used alone as a designation 
for the whole aggregation of nations and faculties regarded 
as an institution of learning. On the contrary, throughout 
the entire mediaeval period, the term employed for that gen- 
eral conception — the analogue of the modern university — was 
schola, more commonly, studium generate, or "general study." ^ 

The evolution of the studium generale, whether of the 
democratic or the centralized type, passing through various 
stages before its exceedingly complex organism is fully 
attained, affords a very instructive study ; but it can here be 
sketched only in bare outline. 

The gathering of the first nation or gild, as already inti- 
mated, arose in a secular need. At Bologna it was the lectures 
of Irnerius on the civil law, about 1113, which first attracted 
students from beyond the Alps. Later in the same century 
appeared the Deeretum of Gratian — a codification of genuine 
and spurious canons — which gave an impulse to the study of 



^ According to Savigny, Universities of the Middle Ages, Barnard's Journal, 
vol. 22, pp. 274, 325 — " in Paris the corporation consisted of all the pro- 
fessors, who possessed all the power and authority, while the students, as 
only the subjects of the little state, are nowhere particularly mentioned. 
In Bologna the students formed the corporation, and elected the officers 
from their own body, and to the authority of these the professors were sub- 
jected . . . Hence in Bologna the name of universitas scholarum was in 
common use ; while in Paris it was universitas magistrorum." 

* On the use of the term s'.ndium generale, see Newman, Rise and Progress 
of Universities, in Barnard's Journal, vol. 24, p. xvii ; DoUinger, Universities, 
Past and Present, in Barnard's Journal, vol. 20, pp. 738-9 ; Mullinger, Uni- 
versities, Ency. Brit., XXIII, pp. 831 f. ; Savigny, Universities of the Middle 
Ages, in Barnard's Journal, vol. 22, p. 325 ; and an article in Barnard's 
Journal, vol. 9 (1860), pp. 49-55. 



Evolution of the University. 9 

ecclesiastical law at the same place. Thus iu the very begin- 
ning, the school of Bologna laid the foundation of her dis- 
tinctive character as a center of secular learning, and especially 
as a place for the study of the two rival branches of juris- 
prudence — the subject which was becoming of ever-increasing 
importance in the politics and commerce of the Empire. 

On the other hand, the studium generale of Paris began in 
the study of logic or dialectics, at that time looked upon as 
the scientia scientiarum, the hand-maid of theology. Dialec- 
tics or argumentation iu prescribed forms was regarded as 
necessary to the " intelligent apprehension of spiritual truth." 
This is curiously illustrated by the use made of the book of 
Sentences of Peter Lombard, bishop of Paris in 1 1 59, and a 
pupil of Abelard, the second great teacher of logic at that 
place. " The design of this work," says Mr. Mullinger, " was 
to place before the student, in as strictly logical a form as 
practicable, the views (sententiae) of the fathers and all the 
great doctors of the church upon the chief and most difficult 
points in the christian belief. Conceived with the purpose of 
allaying and preventing, it really stimulated, controversy. 
The logicians seized upon it as a great storehouse of indis- 
putable major premises, on which they argued with renewed 
energy and with endless ingenuity of dialectical refinement ; 
and upon this new compendium of theological doctrine, 
which became the text-book of the Middle Ages, the school- 
men, in their successive treatises super sententias, expended a 
considerable share of that subtlety and labour which still 
excite the astonishment of the student of metaphysical liter- 
ature.^ " 

Thus in the outset the University of Paris developed a 
tendency precisely opposite to that of Bologna, which ulti- 
mately made her the great theological school of Europe, and 



1 Mullinger, Universities, Ency. Brit, XXIII, 834 ; University of Cambridge, 
I, 58-62, 77-9. On the dialectics of the schoolmen, see especially Prantl, 
Geschichle der Logik, Vols. II, III. 



10 Evolution of the University. 

laid the foundation of that ecclesiastical domination of thought 
which has exerted so vast and so disastrous an influence on 
the history of higher education throughout the world. 

In its origin the studium generale was composed loosely of 
voluntary associations dependent upon their own resources. 
But soon it gained the protection and patronage of the civil 
power. This was effected for the school at Bologna by the 
celebrated Pnvi%M(m of Frederick Barbarossa in the year 1158, 
by which important immunities were bestowed upon the 
students, and a special jurisdiction upon the faculties. This 
instrument is the magna eharta of the universities of Italy to 
all of which its privileges were ultimately extended. The 
studium at Paris was also patronized by the state, being styled 
the '' eldest daughter of the king." ^ In both instances, like- 
wise, the popes acted as patrons and supervisors, bestowing 
powers, granting privileges, and confirming statutes. 

Let us now examine the constitution of the school of 
Bologna as it existed about the year 1360, when its full 
development was reached. There were at this time four dis- 
tinct " universitates " with five faculties. First Avere the two 
schools of jurisprudence, formed about 1250 by the amalga- 
mation of the nations or scholastic gilds into two large 
groups : the university of the ultramontani or foreigner, and 
the university of citramontani, or native students. The first 
of these groups was composed of eighteen, and the second of 
seventeen, nations. Originally each of the two universities 
had its own rector ; but in the sixteenth century a further 
step towards union was taken through the institution of a 
common head. 

At the beginning of the fourteenth century, about, 1295- 
1316, a third university, that of the artistae was formed. At 
first the right of the artists to chose their own rector was 



^Savigny, Universities of the Middle Ages, in Barnard's Journal, vol. 22, 
pp. 276, 309. Cf. The University of Paris, in Barnard's Journal, vol. 24, 
pp. 746-7. 



Evolution of the University. 11 

disputed by the older universities, as well as by the city ; but 
after 1316, this right was conceded.^ Finally, in the year 
1360, a universitcis of theology was established by Pope Inno- 
cent VI. 

For these four schools there were five faculties, composed 
in each instance of doctors only. The universities of juris- 
prudence had two faculties in common, one of civil and the 
other of canon law. In like manner the university of 
artistae had two faculties : one of philosophy and another of 
the arts.^ There was also the faculty of theology. But the 
school of theology was formed on the Parisian model, being 
corporately a universitcis magistrorum not scholarum ; so that 
the students for legal purposes were individually connected 
with the artistae. Two striking facts should here be carefully 
noted. The Bologna studium was a very loose aggregation of 
corporations, small and great. The two universities of artistae 
and the university of theology were always independent of 
the schools of jurisprudence ; while the amalgamation of the 
nations of law students to form the latter required four hundred 
years for its accomplishment ; and even then the corporate 
existence of the respective nations was maintained in their 
right of representation in the senate or great council of the 
rector. Again the stadium of Bologna was a republic in 
which the students were supreme. By their representatives 
the rector was annually chosen ; and the senate or rector's 
advisory council was composed of one or two counsellarii 
elected from each nation. Members of the faculty could 
neither vote nor hold any office. The students were the cor- 
poration. 

On the other hand the studium of Paris was a more com- 
pact organization and power was monopolized by the masters 

' Savigny, Universities of the Middle Ages, in Barnard's Journal, vol. 22, 
p. 279. 

- The term Arts comprehended the branches of the ancient trivium and 
quadrivium : Mullinger, Universities, Ency. Brit., XXIII, 833, note 2 ; Uni- 
versity of Cambridge, I, 77. 



12 Evolution of the University. 

and doctors. Even bachelors were subjected to the liberal 
chastisement of the rod ; and this fact may serve as some indi- 
cation of the restricted liberty of the student at Paris as 
compared with his sovereign power at Bologna. At Paris, 
about the year 1250, we find four faculties instead of four 
universitates as at Bologna a century later. First were the 
artistae or faculty of philosophy formed by the amalgamation 
of the four ancient nations — the scholastic gilds. This 
though representing the "old university" — as it was also 
called — was styled the " inferior " faculty, as opposed to the 
three later " superior " faculties of theology, canon law, and 
medicine. The four faculties had a common head (1300- 
1350 ca.) or rector chosen always by the faculty of arts ; each 
superior faculty had a dean ; each nation, a proctor. The 
rector presided in the congregation of the artistae as also in 
that of the entire studium. Only regents, that is masters 
and, of course, doctors actively engaged in teaching, could be 
chosen rectors, participate in their election, or vote on meas- 
ures in the congregations. Thus it appears that the school of 
Paris, though more centralized than that of Bologna, was still 
far from attaining the unity of a modern university. Each of 
the nations and each of the superior faculties, says Mullinger, 
while subject to the general authority of the rector, " was, like 
a royal colony, in a great measure self-governed, and made 
statutes which were binding simply on its own members." ^ 

The three degrees which still exist were introduced at a very 
early day — probably in the twelfth century. The title magister 
or dominus seems to have been given to the first lecturers 
merely as an honorary title. But later, when special jurisdic- 
tion was gained by the doctors, the higher degrees were only 
conferred by formal act. 

Originally the right of the faculties to confer degrees does 
not seem to have rested on either the papal or the imperial 
sanction. Each university freely exercised the privilege as a 

^ Universities, Ency, Brit, XXIII, 835. 



Evolution of the University. 13 

matter wholly within its own competence. But in order that 
a degree, which was in effect a license to teach, might be 
acknowledged as valid throughout Christendom, not merely in 
the place where it was given, the approval of some authority 
generally respected was requisite. Such an authority could only 
be found in the Pope, who thus gained the right, through his 
representatives, of conferring degrees. In this way at Bol- 
ogna, after the year 1219, the archdeacon of the cathedral, to 
prevent " unworthy persons " from receiving them, began to 
approve licenses as the papal delegate. At Paris, in like 
manner, degrees were usually conferred by the chancellor of 
Notre Dame, since, at a very early day, the university was 
brought into connection with the ancient cathedral schools. 
It is in the school of Paris, therefore, that we find the genesis 
of the university chancellorship ; for chancellor came to be the 
technical name of the officer who exercised the right of con- 
ferring degrees, whether he acted merely as the pope's repre- 
sentative, or was the elective constitutional head of the 
institution, as eventually at Oxford and Cambridge.^ Con- 
sequently in its inception the office of chancellor is ecclesiastical 
and has but an incidental connection with the university. It 
was outside of the real constitutional organism ; and at Paris, 
while the rector was the active administrative head, the en- 
croachments of the chancellor of Notre Dame hindered the 
prosperity of the school. " The French kings, who had at 
first accorded it but dubious and precarious aid, as soon as 
they perceived the accession to their own strength to be 
derived from the new alliance, became its avowed friends, 
while the popes, its first and most ardent promoters, adopted 
towards it a policy of mistrust, coldness, and opposition ; and 
the chancellor of the cathedral, on whom it devolved, as the 



^ So, for example, at Bologna the archdeacon of the cathedral, and at 
Montpelier, the bishop, who conferred degrees in all faculties, were each 
styled chancellor: Savigny, Universities of the Middle Ages, in Barnard's 
Journal, vol. 22, pp. 288, 319. 



14 Evolution of the University. 

representative of the pontifical authority, to admit the licen- 
tiates of the higher faculty, and whose claims even amounted 
to a kind of perpetual presidency, ceased not, so long as his 
office continued to exist, to persecute the university to which 
he could not dictate." ^ 

On the other hand, the university rectorate is secular from 
the beginning. Even at Paris the rector, though he could not 
marry, was not required to be a priest. The office of dean, 
it may be noted in passing, had also its origin in Paris ; and 
it appears to have been suggested by the deanship of the 
cathedral. The occasion of its creation was doubtless the fact 
that, since the facult^}^ of artistae were presided over by the 
rector whom they always chose, it became necessary for each 
of the three " superior " faculties to have its subordinate head. 

It is interesting to observe, that all degrees were regarded 
as licenses to teach, though mere students might give lectures 
before taking the first degree. At Bologna the baccalaureate 
was very easy to obtain. If a student had merely read a 
whole work and heard a course of lectures, it was conferred 
upon him without examinatibn^^^. but, according to Savigny,^ 
the degree of bachelor of laws was only granted after the can- 
didate had himself lectured on a whole book of the canon or 
civil law or held a t:epetitio, that is a complete interpretation 
of a text. This degree was given by the rector, and was 
scarcely regarded as an academic honor. It simply admitted 
the student to serve an apprenticeship for that of doctor. The 
higher degrees were conferred by the faculties. 

The degree of master, or licentia docendi, in its origin has its 
whole significance as a call to teach. It was bestowed only 



^ MuUinger, University of Cambridge, I, 79-80 : Le Clerc, Etat des Ltttres 
au Quatorzieme SiMe, I, 262. On the history of degrees, see further Mai- 
den, On the Origin of University and Academical Degrees (London, 1835) ; 
Savigny, Universities of the Middle Ages, in Barnard's Journal, vol. 22, pp. 
284-90, 319, 326; Brodrick, History of the University of Oxford, 9. 

« Brit. Quart. Bex., July, 1884, p. 38. 

^ Universities of the Middle Ages, in Barnard's Journal, vol. 22, p. 290. 



Evolution of the University. 15 

after examination and a public dispute with the professors. 
At Paris the successful candidate was honored with the biretta, 
or magisterial cap, which in imitation of the Roman ceremony 
of manumission was placed on his head by the instructor 
under whom he was said to " incept." By " inception" was 
meant the formal entrance upon the teacher's vocation.^ Thus 
the bachelor was emancipated from his apprenticeship. 

The doctor's degree, or laurea, carried with it the unre- 
stricted right to teach, either at home or in another school. It 
was given after a conventus or public examination. In the 
Italian universities " the day of taking the laurea was one of 
great festivity . . . The ceremony took place in the cathe- 
dral, where the bishop, professors, and city magistrates were 
all assembled. The laureate-elect, mounted on a horse covered 
with golden trappings, went in person to escort the rector to 
the cathedral. Everything was enf^te; the sacred edifice was 
decorated as on a feast day. At the porch his promoters met 
him and escorted him to the professors. A discussion was 
thereupon opened ... so that all might hear ; but this was a 
mere form, the subject being the same as that on which he had 
already been examined. The professors put only questions 
that they knew he could answer and his promoters were at 
hand." ^ The election then took place and the result was pro- 
claimed by the chancellor of the cathedral, and the whole city 
was given over to festivity for the rest of the day. All this 



1 MuUinger, Universities, Ency. Brit., XXIII, 835. At Paris, before the 
end of the middle ages, the rule was " for a bachelor to begin by explaining 
the Sentences in the school of some doctor for the space of a year. At the 
end of that time he was presented to the Chancellor of the Cathedral . . . , 
and if, on examination, he was judged worthy, he received a license and 
became licentiate, until he was received as doctor, when he opened a school 
of his own, in which he explained the Sentences for another year. At the 
end of that time he was allowed to receive some bachelor under him. The 
whole doctor's course lasted three years ; nor could any one take a degree 
unless he had taught according to these regulations:" The University of 
Paris, in Barnard's Journal, vol. 24, p. 752. 

^Brit. Quart. Rev., July, 1884, p. 39-40. 



16 Evolution of the University. 

was so expensive that many licentiates or masters never tried 
for the laurea at all, as they could lecture just as well without. 
These were nicknamed dottorelli. All Bologna was feasted at 
the doctor's cost. " Even in early days the waste of money at 
the laurea was so excessive that in 1311 the Pope limited the 
sum that a man might spend to 500 pounds sterling." ^ Only 
doctors who actually engaged in teaching had a voice in the 
faculty. These were called legentes. At Paris, as already 
seen, only teaching masters, and probably doctors also, could 
participate in the university government. These, in conse- 
quence, were called regentes or regents ; and so we have reached 
the prototype of our modern university dignitary of that name. 

The mediaeval doctor was a personage of great importance. 
The highest honor and respect were shown him ; embassies 
waited upon him to solicit his attendance at foreign schools. 
Books were written to show how he ought to be approached. 
And if his scholarly repose were disturbed by the rude sound 
of the blacksmith's hammer, the offender was compelled to 
seek some other quarter of the town for the exercise of his 
plebeian calling.^ 

This history of academic degrees reveals the significant fact 
that bachelor, master, doctor, regent, and professor — for 
originally professor was but a salaried doctor — are all merely 
alumni in progressive stages of evolution ; and an alumnus is 
primarily one who is called to teach. Moreover, when we 
consider the frank and cordial relations which existed between 
the mediaeval " scholar " and his teacher, we perceive that the 
rudiments of our modern " cooperative method " — of that 
method of " instruction by investigation " which President 
Gilman declares to be the " key-note of university life " ^ — 

1 See Brit. Quart. Rev., July, 1884, p. 40. ^ Ibid., pp. 40-41. 

^ The Idea of the University : North Am. Rev., vol. 133, p. 356. " The idea of 
the university, as it seems to me, consists in the societas magistrorum et discipu- 
lorum; an association, by authority, of masters, who are conspicuous in ability, 
learning, and devotion to study, for the intellectual guidance, in many sub- 
jects, of youthful scholars who have been prepared for the freedom of 
investigation by prolonged discipline in literature and science : " lb., p. 355. 



Evolution of the Univei'sity. 17 

were already present in the Italian schools. The scholar 
addressed his teacher as dominus ; but the teacher called the 
pupil socius or ally. 

The studium generale was, in a certain sense, a state institu- 
tion. But it must be confessed that its relations to the state 
or to the municipality were not such as would commend 
themselves to us. They rested upon that " most characteristic 
principle" of mediaeval society — immunity and class privilege. 
The Italian student was a favored individual. He belonged 
to a fortunate caste. He was relieved of many of the ordinary 
duties of citizenship. He was freed from taxes and imposts. 
Debts could not be enforced against him.^ Lodgings were 
provided for him by the town at nominal cost. If he were 
robbed, the municipality made up the loss. To secure the 
" location " of a university at Vercelli, it was provided in the 
charter that five hundred of the best houses in the town should 
be placed at the disposal of the doctors and students at a low 
rental. For all save grave offences and crimes, students were 
subject' only to the jurisdiction of their teachers and the 
rector — and both teachers and rector were chosen by them. 
Some of their minor privileges are a trifle peculiar. Thus at 
Turin " all comedians and dancers had to give each syndic of 
the university eight free passes to the theater. All mounte- 
banks and quacks had to present each syndic and each beadle 
with eight vases of their specifics. All wine shops gave to 
the same individuals a flask of aqua vita and a pound of 
sweetmeats; the drapers gave a pound of sweetmeats; the 
pastry-cooks gave a cake on the vigil of Epiphany, whilst 
the tobacconists had to send a portion of their goods annually 
to the syndics and beadles. At the first snow the Jews in 
Turin had to pay twenty-five golden scudi, part of which the 
law university spent in celebrating the feast of St. Catherine, 
and the other part the artists lavished on the festival of San 
Francesco; the drapers likewise had to present to students 

1 Brit. Quart. Rev., July, 1884, p. 36. 
2 



18 Evolution of the University. 

annually fifty reams of paper and twelve books." ^ The 
universities constantly gained greater and greater privileges by 
encroachment on the burgesses. If the latter were stubborn, 
a sti'iJce was organized and the entire student body would 
march out of town, bound by solemn oath not to return until 
their demands were granted. And this usually occurred; 
for the ancient Italians were as well aware of the value of a 
university for the interests of trade and for the " booming " 
of real estate as are our worthy compatriots : though death 
and confiscation of property, now-a-days, might be regarded as 
a penalty somewhat too severe for one guilty of persuading a 
scholar to study, in another town. But such was the law at 
Bologna. Even Paris was sometimes coerced by student 
secessions.^ The importance of these privileges will be 
better appreciated when we consider that from ten to fifteen 
thousand students were present at Padua or Bologna. Many 
of these were men of mature age having with them their wives 
and children. 

II. — The Triumph of The College over The 
University. 

The constitution of the English universities, as already 
stated, was modelled upon that of the University of Paris. 
As in the latter, also, theology took precedence over other 
branches. But there was one institution which was to receive 
an extraordinary and peculiar development in England. This 
was the collegium or college — a distinguishing feature of the 
Paris studium. The college was not originally. an institution 
of learning, nor was it part of the university. It was merely 
a private foundation designed to afford free or cheap board 
and lodgings to students — a kind of endowed dormitory. 



^Brit. Quart. Bev., July, 1884, pp. 36-7. . 

* The University of Paris, in Barnard's Journal, vol. 24, p. 748 ; Savigny, 
Universities of the Middle Ages, in Barnard's Journal, vol. 22, p. 309. 



Evolution of the University. 19 

This was particularly necessary at Paris on account of the 
vast number of foreign students who gathered there attracted 
by that great school of theology which was especially fostered 
by the popes. At first the university had no buildings; 
lectures being given in convents and other rooms in the Rue 
cle la Fouarre — in the Street as it was called. As colleges 
were gradually endowed and buildings erected, the great 
majority of the students took up their residence there. By 
degrees members of this or that university faculty were 
selected and placed as lecturers in the colleges. " Sometimes 
nominated, always controlled, and only degraded by their 
faculty, these lecturers were recognized as among its teachers ; 
and the same privileges accorded to the attendance on their 
college courses, as on those delivered by other graduates in 
the common schools of the university." ^ They were in fact 
both college and university lecturers at the same time. Soon 
the classes of each college were thrown open to members of 
all the others ; and even martinets,^ that is, students of the 
university who had not attached themselves to any college, 
were allowed to attend their lectures. Thus healthy compe- 
tition between the various colleges was encouraged ; and the 
lecturers were selected on account of fitness. In this way the 
work of the university was largely transferred to the colleges, 
and a state of aifairs was brought about in this particular not 
unlike that of an American university in its practical results. 
The university was absorbed by the colleges but not destroyed. 
Very different was the ultimate result across the Channel.^ 



1 Hamilton, English Universities: Oxford, in Edinhirgh Review, vol. 53, 
p. 400. 

^ Martinet " se disait autrefois des externes des colleges, probablement 
compares a des oiseaux fuyards:" Littre, Dictionnaire, III, 461. 

3 The relative faults and merits of the "university" and "college" fea- 
tures of the English schools have given rise to much discussion. Already 
in the eighteenth century the degradation of learning at Oxford had been 
exposed by Adam Smith, Wealth of jSlations (Oxford, 1880), II, 344 ff. ; 
and Cilbbon, Autobiography and Correspondence (London, 1869), 23-32. 



20 Evolution of the University. 

There, originally, the students resided principally in " houses 
of community " variously denominated hostels, inns, entries, 
chambers, or halls ; and at an early day such residence became 
a compulsory requirement. Here they lived at their own 
expense, under the direction of a "principal" chosen by 
themselves, the rate of rent being fixed every five years by 
academical "taxators."^ These halls were at first very 



But the assault upon the abuses of the college system, ultimately leading 
to the reform commission of 1850, was effectively opened by Sir William 
Hamilton in a remarkable paper entitled, Universities of England : Oxford, 
published in the Edinburgh Review, June, 1831, pp. 384-427. This was 
republished, together with a supplementary article from the same Review 
(Dec, 1831), in his Discussions on Philosophy and Literature (New York, 
1868), which also contains other valuable chapters on university reform. 
The alleged advantages of the college system are set forth by Newman in 
his Rise and Progress of Universities (republished, 1856, under the title; 
Office and Work of Universities), extracts from which as well as from the 
writings of Smith, Gibbon, and Hamilton already cited, may be found in 
an historical account of The University of Oxford, in Barnard's Journal, vol. 
27, pp. 801-944. For other extracts from Newman's work, see lb., vol. 24. 
On the general history of the English universities, consult Huber, The 
English Universities, 3 vols., London, 1843 : translated from the German by 
F. W. Newman. This is a standard work, but now in part superseded by 
more recent investigations. The best short account of Oxford is Brod- 
rick's History of the University of Oxford (London, 1886), in the Epochs of 
Church History series. Wood's Athenae Oxoniensis, 4 vols., 4to, London, 
1813, is characterized by Dr. G. S. Hall as "a vast mine of material." 
For any extended investigation, Anstey's Munimenta Acudemica, or Docu- 
ments illustrative of Academical Life and Studies at Oxford; and the Publica- 
tions of the Oxford Historical Society, are indispensable. For Cambridge 
I am especially indebted to the scholarly work of J. B. Midlinger, The 
University of Cambridge, 2 vols., Cambridge, 1873-84, which brings the 
subject down to the ascension of Charles I. See also his short history of 
the same university in the Epochs of Church History series. The most 
elaborate treatment of the materials is comprised in the Annals, the Memo- 
rials, and the Athmae Cantabrigienses, of C. H. Cooper. For the literature 
relating to particular colleges, see Dr. Hall's Bibliography of Education, 41 ff. 
' So at Oxford : Hamilton, Discussions, 409 ff. " These halls were gov- 
erned by peculiar statutes established by the university, by whom they 
were also visited and reformed ; and administered by a principal, elected 
by the scholars themselves, but admitted to his office by the chancellor or 
his deputy, on finding caution for payment of the rent. The halls were in 



Evolution of the University. 21 

numerous, about eighty having been identified at Oxford, 
though all of them may not have existed at the same time.^ 

Now the first thing to be noticed is the significant fact that 
these halls — being in reality tenement houses owned by private 
citizens but subject to university regulation — were ultimately 
superseded by a few colleges whose rich endowments enabled 
them gradually to gather within their walls nearly the entire 
academic population. The first English colleges were elee- 
mosynary foundations designed for the support of needy 
students.^ " William of Wykeham ordains that, next to his 
kinsmen, poor, indigent clerks are to be admitted on his foun- 
dation." " John Balliol allowed the students on his foundation 
only one penny for daily food on week-days and twopence on 
Sundays." Those to be elected are described in various col- 
leges as pauperes, pauperes ex eleemosj/na viventes, etc. The 
sum assigned for the support of members of the foundations 
did not originally exceed fifty shillings annually. Thus it 
appears that colleges were first established for the benefit of 
the poor and the pious ; they became eventually sumptuous 
abodes of the rich and dissolute.^ 

general held only on lease ; but by a privilege common to most universities, 
houses once occupied by clerks or students could not again be resumed by 
the proprietor, or taken from the gown, if the rent were punctually dis- 
charged : " Ih., 409. Hostels was the common designation for such houses 
at Cambridge — hall there being used as equivalent to college — and similar 
statutes were enacted for their regulation. See Mullinger, University of , 
Cambric! ge, I, 217-22, 638. Cf. Brodrick, History of the University of Oxford, 
13, 22 ; and Barnard's Jotirnal, vol. 27, pp. 824-5. 

' Brodrick, History of the University of Oxford, 13. But Hamilton, Disctis- 
sions, 410, following Wood, makes the number of halls 300 at the beginning 
of the fourteenth century. 

' The early colleges were also designed especially for the education of the 
secular clergy as opposed to the mendicants and other religious bodies. 
Such was the character of Merton, the second college founded at Oxford and 
the model for those subsequently established there and at Cambridge. See 
Brodrick, History of the University of Oxford, 15 ff.; and Mullinger, The 
University of Cambridge, I, 160 ff., 221 ff. 

^Sanborn, in North Am. Rev., Jan., 1855, pp. 121-3. See also the testi- 
mony of Erasmus for Montaigu College, Paris : Mullinger, University of 



22 Evolution of the University. 

As on the Continent, all graduates of the English universi- 
ties had a right to engage in teaching. But the peculiar 
character of the college foundations was such that practically 
all tuition was monopolized by the fellows. " As the fellow- 
ships were not founded for the purposes of teaching, so the 
qualifications that constitute a fellow are not those that consti- 
tute an instructor. The colleges owe their establishment to 
the capricious bounty of individuals ; and the fellow rarely 
owes his eligibility to merit alone, but in the immense majority 
of cases to fortuitous circumstances. The fellowships in 
Oxford are, with few exceptions, limited to founder's kin — 
to founder's kin, born in particular counties, or educated at 
particular schools — to the scholars of certain schools, without 
restriction, or narrowed by some additional circumstance of 
age or locality of birth — to natives of certain dioceses, arch- 
deaconries, islands, counties, towns, parishes, or manors, under 
every variety of arbitrary condition. In some cases, the can- 
didate must be a graduate of a certain standing, in others he 
must not ; in some he must be in orders, perhaps priest's, in 
others he is only bound to enter the church ■within a definite 
time. In some cases the fellow may freely choose his pro- 
fession ; in general he is limited to theology . . . With one 
unimportant exception the fellowships are perpetual ; but they 
are vacated by marriage, and by acceptance of a living above 
a limited amount. They vary greatly in emolument in differ- 
ent colleges ; and in the same colleges the difference is often 
considerable between those on different foundations, and on the 
same foundations between the senior and the junior fellow- 
ships. Some do not even afford the necessaries of life ; others 
are more than competent to its superfluities. Residence is 
now universally dispensed with, though in some cases certain 



Camhrldge, I, 367 ; of Lever, master of St. John's College, Cambridge (1550) : 
lb., I, 370-1 ; Newman, Rise and Progress of Universities, in Barnard's Jour- 
nal, vol. 27, pp. 812, 814; and Barnard's Journal, vol. 27, p. 829. 



Evolution of the University. 23 

advantages are only to be enjoyed on the spot." ^ Such a sys- 
tem, it is clear, is not admirably calculated to produce eminent 
scholarship on the part of the body of fellows ; and in fact the 
least competent of them generally became tutors,^ for they 
could receive their stipends for indefinite time without resi- 
dence at the university. 

Two systems, in origin entirely distinct and with opposing 
interests, were thus brought into existence : the old university, 
in which salaried professors were appointed for special depart- 
ments ; and the colleges, in which the fellows, if graduates, 
received fees for tuition. Let us now see how it was to the 
interest of the fellow-tutors to suppress the university, and 
how it was possible to do so. 

In the first place only students on the various foundations, 
that is, those supported in whole or in part by the endowments, 
were necessarily admitted into any college; but since it 
increased the fees of the fellow-tutors, other students were 
allowed to attend. But the salaried university professors, in 
England as well as on the Continent, could not, at first, 
legally receive fees : tuition was free. So the heads of col- 
leges and the fellows in the governing bodies winked at the 
illegal acceptance of honoraria by the professors in order to 
lessen competition. Again it was not to the interest of the 
fellows that the professorships of the university should be 
filled by men of ability ; and since the salaries were often too 
small to attract men of talent, and since the colleges had a 
controlling influence in the choice of professors, it is not strange 
that a sufficiently low standard of scholarship was readily 
attained,^ 



1 Hamilton, Discussions, 395-6. ^ Hamilton, Discussions, 396. 

' The deterioration of learning at Oxford reached its lowest point in the 
eighteenth century. " Our curiosity may inquire," says Gibbon who en- 
tered that university in 1752, " what number of professors has been insti- 
tuted at Oxford ? ... by whom are they appointed, and what may be the 
probable chances of merit or incapacity ; how many are stationed to the 
three faculties, and how many are left for the liberal arts ? What is the 



24 Evolution of the University. 

It required but one more step to complete the triumph of 
the college. This was effected by gaining entire control of the 
administration. The early constitution of the English uni- 
versities varied only in details from its Parisian model. From 
an early period the chancellor appears as the chief magistrate. 
He was originally chosen by the masters ; and, as elsewhere, 
he possessed the right of approving all degrees. Moreover he 
was invested with a jurisdiction in the university analogous to 
that of the bishop in the diocese.^ But the office became at 



form, and what the substance, of their lessons? But all these questions 
are silenced bj' one short and singular answer, ' That in the University of 
Oxford, the greater part of the public professors have for these many years 
given up altogether even the pretence of teaching ' . . . The fellows or 
monks of my time were decent easy men, who supinely enjoyed the gifts of 
the founder; their days were filled by a series of uniform employments; 
the chapel and the hall, the coffee-house and the common room, till they 
retired, weary and well satisfied, to a long slumber. From the toil of read- 
ing, or thinking, or writing, they had absolved their conscience ; and the 
first shoots of learning and ingenuity Avithered on the ground, without 
yielding any fruits to the owners or the public:" Autobiography and Cor- 
respondence, 25-27. Cf. Brodrick, History of the University of Oxford, 177 fF., 
who summarizes the evidence for and against the University at this time ; 
also Smith, Wealth of Nations, II, 345-6, who regards the sloth of the pro- 
fessor as the direct result of receiving a fixed salary : " His interest is, 
in this case, set as directly in opposition to his duty as it is possible to 
set it." The condition of Cambridge was probably somewhat better : see, 
for the seventeenth century, MuUinger, The University of Cambridge, II, 372 
ff"., 432 ff., 574; and for later times, his short History, 167 AT. 

^ Both at Cambridge and Oxford the origin of the chancellor's office is 
obscure. Thus, at Oxford, it appears to have been ecclesiastical in char- 
acter, and to have been taken into the university constitution from without. 
About the year 1214 Mr. Brodrick infers "that no chancellor of the uni- 
versity existed distinct from the chancellor of the diocese, or, at least, that, 
if he existed, he was a nominee of the bishop of Lincoln." From the 
year 1220, however, the chancellor was elected by the convocation, com- 
posed of regents and non-regents, though still " subject to confirmation by 
the diocesan. A century later (1322) the election was made biennial:" 
History of the University of Oxford, 11-12. He now holds office for life. At 
Cambridge the chancellor was originally chosen by the regent masters 
and exercised an important jurisdiction. But since 1549 he has been 
chosen by the senate composed of regents and non-regents ; and though 



Evolution of the University. 25 

length a mere ornament, all of its functions being transferred 
to the vice-chancellor or other deputies. On the other hand, 
the active headship of the ancient universities was vested in 
the two proctors,^ who, like the vice-chancellor, were originally 
chosen by the masters and doctors actually engaged in teaching. 
Authority was thus placed, where it should be placed, in the 
hands of the working members of the faculties. Unfortunately, 
however, the primitive constitution was not lasting ; and with 
its decay, or overthrow, power came more and more to be 
centralized in the college heads. A memorable step in this 
direction was taken at Oxford in 1569, when the Earl of 
Leicester, then chancellor, procured the enactment of statutes 
depriving the " black congregation," composed mainly of 
resident teachers, of the right of " preliminary discussion of 
university business " which they had thus far enjoyed, and 
vesting it in an oligarchy consisting of the vice-chancellor, 
proctors, doctors, and heads of colleges.^ The revolution in 
this way begun was completed by the Laudian statutes* of 
1636, by which all real administrative authority was entrusted 
to the hebdomadal meeting consisting of the vice-chancellor, 
proctors, and heads of colleges, instead of the old houses of 
congregation and convocation^ composed of university grado- 



nominally the election may occur biennially, in practice the office is 
held for a longer period : MuUinger, The University of Cambridge, I, 140 
ff., 287 ff.; II, 112; Hall, College Words and Customs, 61. The vice- 
chancellor of Cambridge was originally chosen by the regents ; later by the 
same body from two nominees selected by the college heads : Mullinger, II, 
223. He was always chosen from the college heads after 1587 : lb., TI, 321. 
From the days of Elizabeth the vice-chancellor of Oxford was nominated 
by the chancellor with the assent of convocation : Brodrick, 113. 

^ The office of proctor was analogous to that of rector at Paris, and the 
latter name was also in use for it at Cambridge. 

* Brodrick, History of the University of Oxford, 90. 

^ At Oxford the "house of congregation" was composed principally of 
regents ; and the convocation, of both regents and non-regents. At Cam- 
bridge the houses of regents and non-regents formed together the university 
senate. 



26 Evolution of the University. 

ates. But iu the hebdomadal meeting the voice of the college 
heads was supreme. For " the same oligarchical tendency," 
says Brodrick, " may be discerned in the statute which con- 
verted the popular and public election of proctors by the 
common suffrages of all the masters into a private election by 
the doctors and masters of a certain standing in each college, 
however beneficial its effect may have been in checking the 
abuses of tumultuous canvassing. While the dignity of the 
procuratorial office was thus sensibly reduced, that of the 
vice-chancellor's office was proportionably enhanced. The 
Laudian Code legalized the practice resumed by Leicester, 
directing that the vice-chancellor should be nominated an- 
nually from the heads of colleges by the chancellor, with the 
assent of convocation." ^ A similar tendency to centralize 
government in the college at the expense of the university is 
visible at Cambridge, though the abuse of power was perhaps 
never quite so marked. 

It was but a natural consequence of the revolution just 
described that students were excused from the legal require- 
ment of attendance on the lectures of professors ; indeed many 
of the latter ceased entirely even to offer instruction. While, 
on the other liand, the character of the college system was 
such that, practically, the entire tuition of each undergraduate 
was entrusted to a single tutor, who was thus expected to 
attempt all that the entire ancient body of professors was able 
to perform. There was little or no specialization. " If 
Oxford accomplishes the object of a university," says Sir 
William Hamilton, writing in 1831, "even in its lowest 
faculty, every fellow-tutor must be a second doctor universalis, 

' Qui tria, qui septem, qui totum scibile scivit.' " ^ 

No wonder, then, that the English universities became 
" hospitals for drones." Besides it must be recollected that 



1 Brodrick, History of the University of Oxford, 113. Of. Hamilton, Dis- 
cussions, 414 fF, * Discussions, 395. 



Evolution of the University. 27 

the conception of what should constitute a liberal education 
was very narrow. Much divinity ; a little history ; some 
mathematics, notably at Cambridge ; and a surfeit of Latin 
and Greek, in which, however, no advance was made beyond 
the point reached at the Renaissance, while the practical 
objects of the humanists were entirely forgotten. The intro- 
duction of the tripos was a step in advance. But the tripos is 
exceedingly restricted in its aim. Productive research is not 
stimulated ; and the real effect is to discourage aspiration on 
the part of all save the very few who can have the least hope 
of success in such competition. The mass of students are con- 
tent to do as little as possible for their degrees. 

Such was the character of the English universities previous 
to the beginning of reform legislation in 1854. Since that 
time several commissions of enquiry have been appointed 
whose recommendations have been incorporated in various acts 
of Parliament. Religious tests have been abolished ; fellow- 
ships have been thrown open to merit, and fellows allowed to 
marry. The colleges have been freed from antiquated stat- 
utes. Professorships have been increased, reorganized, and 
reendowed. Readerships have been created. Students are 
allowed to attend without being bound to reside in a hall or 
college. And the subjects of study have been made to bear 
some relation to the requirements of actual life.^ But the 
results are very far from satisfactory. Speaking of the 
reformatory legislation, in an article entitled " Oxford after 
forty years," Mr. Freeman makes the following declaration : 
"Above all, I had not learned how wonderfully a movement 
whose aim was the encouragement and even the endowment of 
research, was by some malicious ingenuity turned about into 
an iron code by which research has been made well-nigh 
penal." ^ 



' Mullinger, Universities, Ency. Brit,, XXIII, p. 853. 
' Contemporary Bemeiv, May, 1887, p. 611. The surviving faults of 
Oxford are discussed in an instructive article entitled Oxford and its Profes- 



28 JEvolution of the University. 

But that which more nearly concerns iis at present is the fact 
that the English college is the direct prototype of the first 
American schools. The three most important foundations of 
the colonial period, which eventually became the models, 
directly or indirectly, of nearly all our higher institutions of 
learning, were in aim and organization reproductions of 
Cambridge or Oxford colleges,^ with such modifications as 
new environment, peculiar religious ideas, and isolated position, 
rendered necessary. Unfortunately the principal defects of 
the English system were perpetuated. Thus the English uni- 
versities were state institutions placed in subordination to a 
church establishment. Harvard, Yale, and William and Mary 
were in character practically the same. Each was chartered 
by the state — by the colonial assembly or the British govern- 
ment — for religious purposes. By a fortunate circumstance, 
however. Harvard was not placed in dependence upon the 
Puritan clergy; not from any sympathy with secular education, 
but because in 1638 the theocracy was at its meridian and it 
was inconceivable that the clergy should not control the 
college. With the fall of the ecclesiastical despotism and the 
gradual spread of liberal ideas. Harvard has been able to 
emancipate herself without violating the letter of her charter ; 
and thus, at length, she has become a foremost leader in the 
American renaissance of secular education. 



sors, in the Edinburgh Review, October, 1889, pp. 303-27. See also the 
severe criticism of Professor Thorold Eogers, in the Contemporary Review, 
December, 1889, pp. 926-36 ; and the reply to his article, in the same 
Review, Februarj', 1890, pp. 183-6. On recent progress in History at the 
English universities, see President C. K. Adams' Address: Papers of Am. 
Hist. Association, IV, 48 fF. 

^ " The other colleges which were founded before the Revolution, viz. : 
New Jersey College, Columbia College, Pennsylvania University, Brown 
University, Dartmouth, and Rutgers College, ' generally imitated Harvard 
in the order of classes, the course of studies, the use of text-books, and the 
manner of instruction : ' " Hall, College Words and Customs, 289. A.nd these 
colleges, in their turn, became models for many of those subsequently 
founded : lb., 289-90. 



Evolution of the University. 29 

Yale, as is well known, originated, 1698, in a protest of 
the Congregational clergy against the latitudinarian tendencies 
of Harvard. By the charter the establishment of a " Col- 
legiate School " was entrusted to ten men, " all reverent 
ministers of the gospell," who out of their " zeal for the 
upholding and propagating of the Christian protestant religion, 
by a succession of learned and orthodox men " had petitioned 
for the establishment of a school in which youth " may be 
instructed in the arts and sciences," and " fitted for publick 
imployraents both in Church and Civill State," ^ The college 
of William and Mary was founded for similar pious objects. ^ 

A second characteristic of the American schools was inher- 
ited from the mother country. I refer to the narrow sphere 
assigned to higher education. As in England, divinity, mathe- 
matics, and the dead languages — the principal elements in fact 
of our traditional " classic course," until a few years ago the 
only honorable part of the American curriculum — were the 
chief objects of collegiate study. A premium was put upon 
the acquisition of Latin and Greek at the expense of the 
mother tongue. By the " Laws and Liberties " of Harvard, 
adopted before 1646, it is provided that "scholars shall never 
use their mother tongue, except that in public exercises of 
oratory, or such like, they be called to make them in English." ' 
In short, from the English colleges we have inherited that 
scholastic spirit which has prevented our schools from entering 
into their proper relation to society. Hence it is that the 
college professor, even yet, is too often the last man vrhom the 
people think of consulting on practical questions. 



^ Connecticut Colonial Record, IV, 363. 

* H. B. Adams, The College of William and Mary, 17. 

^Quincy, History of Harvard University, I, 517. "This law appears upon 
the records of the college in the Latin as well as in the English language. 
The terms in the former are indeed less restrictive and more practical : 
' Scholares vernacula lingua, intra Gollegii limites, nullo pretextu utentur : ' " 
Hall, College Words and Customs, 285. 



30 Evolution of the University. 

III. — The Renaissance of Leakning in the United 

States. 

But if the constitutional organism and the chief defects of 
the American college have come down to us through Oxford 
and Cambridge from the studium of Paris, that vitalizing 
influence which is beginning to effect a wonderful transforma- 
tion in it is our own late inheritance from the Italian Renais- 
sance. Two things the world owes to the humanists, 
particularly to that glorious band who gathered at the court of 
Lorenzo de' Medici : the enfranchisement of thought and the 
secularization of learning. On the one hand, they broke the 
chains of scholastic logic ; on the other, they went back two 
thousand years to drink from the fountain of Hellenic culture. 
The humanist unlike the schoolman was filled with a deep 
respect for human nature, with a pious reverence for all that 
man at any time had achieved in thought. Hence he wor- 
shipped Plato and Cicero because he believed that only in the 
best works of antiquity could the best products of the human 
mind be discovered.^ 

From Italy the seeds of the New Learning were carried to 
Oxford and Cambridge by Erasmus, Grocyn, and their com- 
rades, and the foundation was laid of such classic culture as 
these schools now represent.^ But until the present . age the 
impulse then given to secular education in England was inter- 
rupted. The troubles of the Reformation period and the 
proscription of thought during the Tudor despotism well-nigh 
depopulated the universities. In France, likewise, until the 
age of Voltaire, religious bigotry stifled the voice of the 



^ On the work of the humanists in the universities and schools of Italy, 
see Burckhardt, The Renaissance in Italy, I, 293-302 ; Symonds, Renaissance 
in Italy : Revival of Learning, 114 ff. 

* See Seebohm, The Oxford Reformers ; and his Protestant Revolution, 74 
ff. ; also Mullinger, The TJnimrsity of Cambridge, I, 379 ff., 473 ff. ; Brodrick, 
History of the University of Oxford, 68 ff. 



Evolution of the University. 31 

Renaissance in flames lighted by the Inquisition. Even in 
Italy, in the sixteenth century, the Revival degenerated into a 
blind worship of the classics. Nothing can be more disgusting 
than the vain pedantry and the so-called Oiceronianism of the 
age of Dolet and Scaliger.^ 

But the humanists had already borne the torch of learning 
beyond the Alps into the ancient home of the English race. 
Here Conrad Muth, Reuchlin, Erasmus, Melauchthon, and 
Ulrich von Hutten adopted more enlightened and more criti- 
cal methods than those even of the Italian scholars.^ But in 
Germany, as in England, the effect of the Reformation was 
disastrous. " The fierce bigotry and the ceaseless controver- 
sies evoked by the promulgation of Lutheran or Calvinistic 
doctrine," says Mullinger, " converted what might otherwise 
have become the tranquil abodes of the Muses into gloomy 
fortresses of sectarianism . . . For a century after the Refor- 
mation the history of Lutheran theology becomes almost 
identified with that of the German universities." ^ 

A new era began, however, with the foundation of the Uni- 
versity of Halle in 1693. This has been well named the 
"first modern university." Here Christian Thomasius — a 
name which should be held in veneration by every scholar, 
aided by his rival and antagonist, A. H. Fraucke, emancipated 
learning from the double thraldom of theology and classicism. 
He demanded that education should be secularized, and that 
it should include within its scope the elements of modern cul- 
ture. Thomasius was the first professor in Germany to lecture 
in the vernacular instead of the Latin tongue.* The move- 



' Much interesting matter on this point may be found in Christie's 
Etienne Dolet, the Martyr of the Renaissance (London, 1880), pp. 188-220, 
passim. 

*See the interesting lecture of A. W. Ward, On Some Academical Experi- 
ences of the German Renaissance (London, 1878). 

' Mullinger, Universities, Ency. Brit., XXIII, p. 844 ; University of Cam- 
bridge, I, 407 ff.; II, 102 ff. 

* Mullinger, Universities, Ency. Brit., XXIII, p. 847. 



32 Evolution of the University. 

ment begun at Halle extended itself, first to Gottingen, then 
to other schools, until finally the present incomparable system 
of German universities was produced. And it is under the 
influence of American scholars educated in Germany that 
higher education in this country is being transformed. 
" Thus/' remarks Symonds, " Italy, after receiving the lamp 
of learning from the dying hands of Hellas in the days of her 
own freedom, ... in the time of her adversity and ruin gave 
it to the nations of the North." ^ Borne thence across the sea, let 
us add, it is with justifiable pride that we behold it receiving 
its warmest welcome in the State universities of the Western 
world. 

IV. — The Relation of The State University to 
The Social Organism. 

The revolution iu higher education which is rapidly taking 
place in this country may be briefly described as a tendency 
towards bringing the schools into closer relation with the 
social organism. 

This appears in several ways. The student is no longer, as 
in ancient Italy, the member of a privileged class, with in- 
terests hostile to those of the community ; neither is he required 
to live apart from his fellow men in hall or cloister. On the 
contrary, while devoting himself mainly to the duties of his 
academic life, he remains a member of the social body. He 
may exercise all the rights, while sharing all the burdens, of 
the ordinary citizen. He thus remains in sympathy with 
mankind, and does not forget that his business as a student is 
to fit himself for the performance of social duty. So also the 
university teacher is anxious above all things to free himself 
from pedantry and cant, and to remain in touch with humanity. 
Men of affairs, it is true, still entertain a deep distrust of the 
opinions of college professors on political or other practical 

' The Revival of Learning, 544. 



Evolution of the University. 33 

questions in which society is deeply concerned. And it must 
be admitted that history too clearly justifies the distrust. 
Happily, however, sentiment is undergoing a change in this 
regard. In Europe the gravest international problems, the 
most delicate political or diplomatic business, is often entrusted 
to this or that celebrated professor ; and the higher work of 
administration is largely handed over to specialists trained in 
the schools. In this country there is a slight tendency in the 
same direction, which will increase as fast probably as scholars 
show that they are deserving of confidence. 

Again in our best institutions the relations of the student 
to his teacher are becoming such as are favorable to the 
development of manliness and independence of judgment. 
The four or six years of academic life are beginning to be, not 
a time for the acquirement of unpractical dogmas and habits 
of mental helplessness, but a real apprenticeship for life's 
duties. The student is once more socius or confederate of his 
teacher. He learns by investigation. But it is in the im- 
mense increase in subjects of study that we are able to see 
most clearly that the university is adapting itself to the 
requirements of society. While the classics and other branches 
of the old curriculum have been retained, and, subjected to 
the comparative method, are made vastly more productive 
than ever before for culture and general social good, a mul- 
titude of new subjects have been introduced. Instruction 
preparatory to nearly every industry and profession is pro- 
vided. But it especially interests us here to observe how 
much attention is given to those questions which concern the 
state and the community at large. Administration, finance, 
constitutional history, constitutional law, comparative politics, 
railroad problems, corporations, forestry, veterinary science, 
charities, statistics, social problems — a crowd of topics, many 
of which a few years ago were unheard of in the schools, are 
in many places being subjected to methodical treatment. 

Now, unless I greatly misapprehend the nature of the crisis 
which our nation has reached, it is in the absolute necessity of 
3 



34 Evolution of the University. 

providing the means of instruction in these branches that we 
may find a very strong, if not unanswerable, argument in 
favor of the public support of higher education. The bare 
statement of several well known facts will enable us to under- 
stand the crisis of which I speak. We have fairly entered 
upon the third great pliase of national development. The 
first phase closed with the Revolutionary War and the birth 
of the nation. The second was the creation and settlement of 
the constitution, terminating with the great Civil War and the 
reestablish ment of self-government in the South. During 
this period our material resources were explored, population and 
wealth were increased, and society became complex. We now 
find ourselves face to face with the momentous and difficult 
questions of administration. Henceforth the state must con- 
cern herself with the economics of government and with the 
pathology of the social organism. The fact is that in the 
science of administration, municipal, state, and local, we are 
as a nation notoriously ignorant. Beguiled by the abundance 
of our resources, we have allowed ourselves to become awk- 
ward and wasteful in nearly every department. But the 
growing discontent and misery of the people admonish us that 
the time for reform has come. Henceforth taxation and finance, 
the tariff and corporations, labor and capital, social reforms 
and the civil service, must absorb the attention of statesmen. 
But all of these things are precisely the problems which can 
be successfully solved only by specialists. No amount of expe- 
rience or general information will enable the legislator who 
does not know how to gather and classify social and economic 
facts, or at least who does not comprehend the nature of the 
evidence afforded by such facts, to frame wise or even safe 
laws on these subjects. Hereafter only men carefully trained 
in the schools can safely be placed at the head of state depart- 
ments. 

But as a matter of fact the ignorance of the average Amer- 
ican law-maker in statistical, administrative, economic, and 
social science is incredibly profound. And how really for- 



Evolution of the University. 35 

midable is the danger which threatens us on account of 
unskilful tinkering with the delicate mechanism of society, we 
cannot fail in some measure to appreciate when we reflect 
that the biennial volume of legislative enactments is constantly 
increasing ; while, at the same time, a greater and greater por- 
tion of such enactments relates to what has hitherto been 
regarded as the proper sphere of individual liberty : to the 
most complex interests of industry and commerce. Undoubt- 
edly there is a growing tendency, for good or ill, to extend the 
domain of state interference and regulation.^ The state, there- 
fore, has urgent need of citizens thoroughly trained in the 
science of politics. If she is justified in the maintenance of 
common schools in order that every man may be fitted for the 
intelligent use of the ballot ; she is also justified in the support 
of higher education, for her very existence may depend upon 
it. This may prove to be the only safeguard of our republic. 
Indeed, it would seem that the statesmanship of the future 
must proceed from the school of political science. Already a 
number of our foremost universities have shown a wise appre- 
ciation of the requirements of the age by providing excellent 
facilities for the study of finance, administration, and kindred 
topics. And this is especially the obligation which society 
imposes on an institution supported by the public bounty. To 
aflPord the most ample means for the acquirement of a thor- 
oughly scientific political education, in every department, is 
the primary duty, the highest office, of the state university. 
Such is her relation to the social organism ; and from that 
relation the place of this Association in the social order is an 
easy deduction. It is your privilege to see things as they 
really are and not as they seem to be ; to perceive the truth 
and defend it. Sometimes it may be your duty to lead the 

1 See the suggestive article of Dr. Albert Shaw, The American State and 
the American Man: Contemporary Review, May, 1887, pp. 695-711; and Mr. 
Koosevelt's Phases of State Legislation : The Century, April, 1885, pp. 820-31, 
in which he gives a remarkable picture of the ignorance displayed by cer- 
tain classes of members in the legislature of New York. 



36 Evolution of the University. 

oppressed people against the strongholds of organized corrup- 
tion and licensed greed ; more frequently you will be called 
upon to defend the misguided masses against themselves. 
For there is a part which it often requires more heroism to 
choose than to be the champion of unpopular reform : it is to 
be intelligently conservative in the face of popular indignation. 
Fifty years ago Tocqueville declared that the Bar was the 
conservative element which would guard this nation from the 
peculiar dangers to which a democratic republic is exposed. 
History has on the whole justified that statement. But in 
the phase of development upon which we have now entered, 
it will be the body of college alumni, and especially the repre- 
sentatives of the broad practical education afforded by the 
state university, which must constitute the conservative force 
of society. 



022 164 712 9 



